Premiered by the San Antonio Chamber Choir. Unaccompanied choir S.A.T.B. – 20’00”

Scott MacPherson, conductor

In 2004 I composed my Lux aeterna for Scott Macpherson and the Trinity University choir.  After hearing a recording of the piece from a performance in the Cologne Cathedral, I started to think about making a larger cycle that would address the subject of light from different religious perspectives all sung in original languages. Lux Caelestis (Celestial Light) is the final result of that process. In looking for texts, I considered many sources, including texts from the Islamic faith to Native American religious practices to texts from Newton about the essence of light. In some cases, I could not find the right poetry. In other cases, out of respect, I could not set the text. (While it is possible to recite the Quran, it is objectionable to some Muslims to set and sing verses from the Quran.) I considered a very beautiful poem from the great Sufi poet, Rumi, but it was only available in an English translation by Coleman Barks and not available in a transliteration in the original Persian. It nevertheless captured the overriding philosophy of this cycle. An excerpt of the poem reads as follows:

All religions, all this singing
One Song.
The differences are just
Illusion and vanity.

The Sun's light looks
A little different on this wall than
It does on that wall,
And a lot different on this other one, 
But it's still one light

I finally decided that for an unaccompanied work, five movements would be a good limit. I had found texts from Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, but needed another. The poet Robert Pinksy suggested to me that I look for Zoroastrian texts on the idea of fire. This rounded out the cycle perfectly.

The cycle begins with the creation of light (Genesis) and the words “Yehi-or”: let there be light. The piece opens with a solo similar to Jewish cantillation, and the choir enters on the creation of light. The next piece comes from the Zoroastrian scriptures and is sung in Avestan, the only place where this language is still used. These excerpts are some of the oldest texts in the cycle (about 3800 years old) and some are hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself.  They speak of Asha (divine Right) and fire as the manifestation of the light of God. Perhaps the first type of monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism influenced the Abrahamic faiths, and there are many traits that we see in other faith traditions (e.g., lighting a candle before a service). The work sets different words for fire (Atrem, Atarsh, Athro) and uses the metrical lines of the hymns in rhythmic strophes. The third text comes from Theravada Buddhism and the Pali canon. Here it is the mind that is luminous, not defiled by incoming thoughts. In this piece, I played with the sound of the syllables as much as the words themselves. A pentatonic tune in a different key is then juxtaposed against the opening pitch collection, finally breaking through into a bright ending. The fourth text is a widely known and loved Sanskrit mantra from the Hindu tradition, the Gayatri Mantra. Translations vary widely, but guidance from divine light is a prominent theme. I used drones for the sacred syllable of “Om”, and I wanted to make sure that the rhythm closely followed the traditional way this mantra is sung. Repeated three times, this is the longest piece in the cycle. The last work is the Lux aeterna, only slightly altered from the 2004 version. Here, light is an eternal concept of love, peace, and rest. All of the works in the cycle have material drawn from this last piece, with “light-motives” that reflect different aspects of light, the eternal, God, and fire throughout the cycle.